The British were now busy in assembling a savage army to oppose Wayne's advance. Two Potawatomi captured on the fifth of June, said that a message had been sent to their tribe to join in the war against the United States; that the British were at Roche de Bout on the Maumee with about four hundred troops and two pieces of artillery, exclusive of the Detroit militia, and that they "had made a fortification around Colonel McKee's house and store at that place, in which they had deposited all their stores and ammunition, arms, clothing and provisions with which they promised to supply all the hostile Indians in abundance, provided they would join and go with them to war; that about two thousand warriors had been assembled, and that Governor Simcoe had promised that fifteen hundred British troops and militia would join them in the attack on the Americans." They further related that this same Governor Simcoe had sent them four different invitations to join in the war, promising them arms, ammunition, provisions and clothing, and everything that they wanted. "All the speeches," said these Potawatomi, "that we received from him, were as red as blood; all the wampum and feathers were painted red; the war pipes and hatchets were red; and even the tobacco was red." The evidence furnished by two Shawnees, captured on the twenty-second of June, corroborated the Potawatomi. They testified that the British were always setting the Indians on, like dogs after game, pressing them to go to war, and kill the Americans, "but did not help them; that unless the British would turn out and help them, they were determined to make peace; that they would not be any longer amused by promises only." Asked about the number of warriors collected along the Maumee, they put the number of the Shawnees at three hundred eighty, the Delawares at four hundred and eighty, the Miamis at one hundred, and the Wyandots at about one hundred and fifty. The Chippewas, however, would furnish the greatest number of fighting men, and they were on the way to the council. That the question of whether there would be a fight or not depended upon the British; "that the British were at the foot of the rapids, and had fortified at Roche de Bout; that there was a great number of British soldiers at that place; that they told the Indians they were now come to help them to fight; and if the Indians would generally turn out and join them, they would advance and fight the American army; that Blue Jacket had been sent by the British to the Chippewas and northern Indians, a considerable time since, to invite them, and bring them to Roche de Bout, there to join the British and other hostile Indians in order to go to war."

On the last day of June, 1794, the premeditated blow fell on Fort Recovery, the scene of St. Clair's disaster in 1791. The garrison was under the command of Captain Alexander Gibson, of the Fourth Sub-Legion. Under the walls of the fort were a detachment of ninety riflemen and fifty dragoons under the command of Major McMahon, who had escorted a train of packhorses from Fort Greenville on the day before, and who were now about to return. The Indians were, according to some authorities, under the command of the Bear chief, an Ottawa; others assign their leadership to the Little Turtle. That they had planned a coup de main and a sudden re-capture of the position is certain. Their army consisted of about fifteen hundred men; they had advanced in seventeen columns, with a wide and extended front, and their encampments were perfectly square and regular. They were attended by "a captain of the British army, a sergeant, and six matrosses, provided with fixed ammunition, suited to the calibre of two field pieces, which had been taken from General St. Clair, and deposited in a creek near the scene of his defeat in 1791." They expected to find this artillery, which had been hidden by the Indians, and turn it on the fort, but the guns had been recovered by their legitimate owners and were now used for defense. A considerable number of white men accompanied the savages, disguised as Indians and with blackened faces, and three British officers, dressed in scarlet, were posted in the rear and encouraged the Indians in their repeated assaults.

The first attack on Major McMahon was successful. Nineteen officers and privates and two packhorsemen were killed and about thirty men wounded. Packhorses to the number of two hundred were quickly taken. But the Indians now made a fatal mistake. In a spirit of rashness, they rushed on the fort. The determined legionaries, aided by McMahon's men, poured in a murderous fire, and they fell back. Again they attacked, and again were they repulsed. All day long they kept up a constant and vigorous fire but it availed nothing. During the succeeding night, which was dark and foggy, they carried off their dead.

On the next morning the attack was renewed, but great numbers of the savages were now becoming disheartened. The loss inflicted by the American garrison had been severe, and was mourned for months by the Indian tribes. Forty or fifty red men had bit the dust and over a hundred had been wounded. Disgraced and crestfallen the savage horde retired to the Maumee. The first encounter with Wayne's army had proved disastrous.

On the twenty-sixth of July, Wayne was joined by sixteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky under the command of Major-General Charles Scott. Scott was a man of intrepid spirit and his men knew it. Moreover, the Kentuckians now looked forward to certain victory, for they trusted Wayne. On the twenty-eighth of July, the whole army moved forward to the Indian towns on the Maumee. No finer body of men ever went forth into the wilderness to meet a savage foe. Iron drill and constant practice at marksmanship had done their work. Officers and men, regulars and volunteers, were ready for the work at hand. Unlike Harmar and St. Clair, Wayne had in his service some of the most renowned scouts and Indian fighters of the day. Ephraim Kibby, William Wells, Robert McClellan, Henry and Christopher Miller, and a party of Chickasaw and Choctaw warriors, constantly kept him posted concerning the number and whereabouts of the enemy, and the nature of the ground which he was to traverse. "The Indians who watched his march brought word to the British that his army went twice as far in a day as St. Clair's, that he kept his scouts well out and his troops always in open order and ready for battle; that he exercised the greatest precaution to avoid an ambush or surprise, and that every night the camps of the different regiments were surrounded by breastworks of fallen trees so as to render a sudden assault hopeless." "We have beaten the enemy twice," said Little Turtle, "under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night and the day are alike to him; and, during all the time that he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers me, it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace."

On the eighth of August Wayne reached the junction of the Au Glaize and the Maumee, and began the erection of Fort Defiance. The whole country was filled with the Indian gardens and corn fields which extended up the Maumee to the British fort. On the thirteenth of August, the General dispatched the scout, Christopher Miller, with the last and final overture of peace. In the event of a refusal, there must be a final appeal to arms. "America," said Wayne, "shall no longer be insulted with impunity. To the all-powerful and just God I therefore commit myself and gallant army." Impatient of a reply, Wayne moved forward again on the fifteenth, and met Miller returning. The Indians requested a delay of ten days to debate peace or war. Wayne gave orders to march on. At eight o'clock on the morning of the twentieth of August, 1794, the army advanced in columns and in open order to meet the enemy. The Indian forces consisted of Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Miamis, Potawatomi, Chippewas and Mohawks, numbering from fifteen hundred to two thousand warriors. Added to these were two companies of Canadian militia from Amherstburg and Detroit, commanded by Captain Caldwell. Alexander McKee was present, and Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty, but they kept well in the rear and near the river. The whole mixed force of Indians and Canadians were encamped on the north bank of the Maumee, "at and around a hill called 'Presque Isle,' about two miles south of the site of Maumee City, and four south of the British Fort Miami."

The order of march was as follows: The Legion was on the right, its flank covered by the Maumee. On the left hovered a brigade of mounted Kentucky volunteers under Brigadier-General Todd. In the rear was another brigade of the same kind of troops under Brigadier-General Barbee. In advance of the Legion rode a select battalion of mounted Kentuckians under Major Price. These were to be on the lookout and to give timely notice to the regulars in case of attack. The army had advanced about five miles and were entering an area covered with fallen timber and high grass, when the advance corps under Price received such a sudden and terrible fire from the hidden enemy that they were compelled to retreat. "The savages were formed in three lines, within supporting distance of each other, and extending for two miles, at right angles with the river." The fallen trunks of the trees, blown down by a tornado, made a fine covert for the red men and prevented any favorable action by the cavalry. Wayne was instantly alert. He formed the Legion into two lines, one a short distance behind the other, and began the fight. He soon perceived from the weight of the savage fire and the extent of their lines that they were trying to turn his left flank and drive him into the river. He now ordered the second line to advance and support the first; directed Major-General Scott to take all the mounted volunteers and turn the right flank of the enemy, while he issued orders to Mis Campbell who commanded the legionary cavalry, to gallop in at the right and next to the river and turn the Indian left. The front line was ordered to charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, "and when up, to deliver a close and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again." The mounted volunteers under Scott, Todd and Barbee, and the second line of the Legion, had only gained their positions in part, when the battle was over. The first line of the federal infantry, charging with that impetuosity imparted to them by their gallant commander, drove savages and Canadians in headlong rout for a distance of two miles and strewed the ground with many corpses. The legionary cavalry, blowing their trumpets and dashing in upon the terrified Indians, slew a part of them with broadswords, and put the remainder to instant retreat. "This horde of savages," says Wayne, "with their allies, abandoned themselves to flight and dispersed with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quiet possession of the field of battle." The British, with their usual treachery, closed the gates of the fort in the face of the fleeing red men and refused them refuge. Lured and encouraged into a hopeless contest, they found themselves abandoned by that very power that had urged them to reject all offers of peace. The Americans lost thirty-three in killed, and had one hundred wounded. The savage loss was much heavier.

Immediately after the battle of Fallen Timbers the American army moved down the river and encamped within view of the British garrison. Fort Miami occupied a well fortified position on the north bank of the Maumee near the present Maumee City. There were four nine-pounders, two large howitzers, and six six-pounders, mounted in the fort, and two swivels. The entire fortification was surrounded by a wide, deep ditch about twenty feet deep from the top of the parapet. The forces within consisted of about two hundred and fifty regulars and two hundred militia. All were under command of Major William Campbell, of the Twenty-fourth Regiment. The rout of the Indian allies had been humiliating enough, but at sight of the victorious ranks of the American army Campbell became furious. On the next day after the battle he could contain himself no longer. He addressed a note to Wayne complaining that the army of the United States had taken post on the banks of the Maumee and within range of his majesty's fort, for upwards of twenty-four hours, and he desired to inform himself as speedily as possible, in what light he was to view so near an approach to the garrison. Wayne made immediate reply. He said that without questioning the authority or the propriety of the major's question, he thought that he might without breach of decorum observe, that if the major was entitled to an answer, that a most full and satisfactory one had been announced to him from the muzzles of his (Wayne's) small arms on the previous day, in an action against a horde of savages in the vicinity of the British post, which had terminated gloriously to the American arms. He further declared that if said action had continued until the Indians were driven under the influence of the British guns, that these guns would not have much impeded the progress of the victorious army under his command, "as no such post was established at the commencement of the present war between the Indians and the United States." On the next day the incensed major wrote another note, threatening Wayne with war if he continued to approach within pistol shot of the fort with arms in his hands. To this Wayne replied by inviting the major to return with his men, artillery and stores to the nearest post "occupied by his Britannic Majesty's troops at the peace of 1783." Campbell wrote another reply refusing to vacate the fort and warning Wayne not to approach within reach of his cannon. "The only notice taken of this letter," says Wayne, "was by immediately setting fire to and destroying everything within view of the fort, and even under the muzzles of the guns." For three days and nights the American troops continued to destroy the houses and corn fields of the enemy both above and below the British post, while the garrison looked on and dared not sally forth. One of the severest sufferers from this devastation was the notorious renegade, Alexander McKee, who had done so much to inflame the war between the tribes and the United States. His houses, stores and property were utterly consumed.

The army now retired by easy marches to Fort Defiance, laying waste the villages and corn fields for about fifty miles on each side of the Maumee. On the fourteenth of September the march was taken up for the Miami villages at the junction of the St. Joseph and the St. Marys, and the troops arrived there on the seventeenth. On the eighteenth, Wayne selected a site for a fort. On the twenty-second of October the new fortification was completed, and a force of infantry and artillery stationed there under command of Colonel John F. Hamtramck. The new post was named Fort Wayne. On the twenty-eighth of October, the main body of the troops started back on the trace to Fort Greenville, and here, on the second day of November, 1794, General Wayne re-established his headquarters.

The victory of Wayne was complete and final. It brought peace to the frontiers, and paved the way for the advance of civilization. In 1802, Ohio became a state of the Union. His triumph did more. It made the name and the power of the United States respected as they never were before, and gave authority and dignity to the federal arms. The Indian tribes were sorely dispirited. Not only had the British abandoned them in their final hour of defeat, but their fields and cabins had been laid waste and their supplies of food destroyed. There was much suffering among them, during the ensuing winter. The establishment of the post at Fort Wayne put a new obstacle in the path of the British in the valleys of the Wabash and the Maumee, and led the way to the final abandonment of the northwest by their troops and garrisons.

The administration of Washington was also vindicated. In the face of two disheartening defeats, a lack of confidence in the west, and almost open opposition in the east, a fighting general had at last been found, an army trained, and led forth to splendid victory. The great northwest owes a debt of eternal gratitude to the first president of the republic, George Washington.

The administration was further successful. While General Wayne was preparing for his campaign, the Chief Justice of the United States, John Jay, had been sent to England to effect a treaty of peace. Feeling was high in both countries and the danger of war was imminent, but the prudence and moderation of Washington led him to see that what the nation needed most was peace and repose and a chance for development. On the nineteenth of November, 1794, Mr. Jay and Lord Grenville "concluded a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation between the United States and Great Britain," by the terms of which the latter country, among other things, agreed to surrender the western posts. On the eleventh day of July, 1796, at the hour of noon, the Stars and Stripes floated over the ramparts of the British fort at Detroit.



CHAPTER XV

THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE

—The surrender of the Ohio lands of the Miamis and their final submission to the Government.

Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, Joseph Brant and Alexander McKee did all that lay within their power to stem the tide of savage defection. Simcoe advised the tribes not to listen to any American overtures of peace, but to simply propose a truce and make ready for further hostilities. He tried to secure a deed of trust for the Indian lands from each nation, promising them that England would guarantee the land thus ceded. A general attack was to be made on all the frontiers in the spring. Brant told them "to keep a good heart and be strong; to do as their father advised." In the spring he would return with a large party of warriors to fight, kill and pursue the Americans. He had always been successful and victory was assured. McKee was active distributing clothing and provisions. He made an especial appeal to the Shawnees who were known to be the most hostile of all the tribes. In a private conference afterwards held with Wayne, the Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, told the general that McKee had invited him to his house and had strongly urged him to keep away from the council with the Americans. Seeing that his entreaties were of no avail, he said: "The commission you received from Johnson was not given you to carry to the Americans. I am grieved to find that you have taken it to them. It was with much regret I learned that you have deserted your friends, who have always caressed you, and treated you as a great man. You have deranged, by your imprudent conduct, all our plans for protecting the Indians, and keeping them with us. They have always looked up to you for advice and direction in the war, and you have now broke the strong ties which held them all together, under your and our direction. You must now be viewed as the enemy of your people, and the other Indians whom you are seducing into the snares of the Americans have formed for their ruin, and the massacre and destruction of their people by the Americans must be laid to your charge." Massas, a Chippewa chieftain, told Wayne that when he returned from the treaty of Muskingum (Fort Harmar), that McKee threatened to kill him. "I have not now less cause to fear him, as he endeavored to prevent my coming hither."

The importunities of the British agents, however, failed of their object. The Indians had lost all confidence in British promises and Wayne had filled them with a wholesome respect for the American arms. Numbers of their leading chieftains, including Tarhe, of the Wyandots, and Little Turtle of the Miamis, thought all further resistance useless. No doubt many of them entertained the views that Brant long afterwards openly expressed to Sir John Johnson. "In the first place," said the great Mohawk, "the Indians were engaged in a war to assist the English—then left in the lurch at the peace, to fight alone until they could make peace for themselves. After repeatedly defeating the armies of the United States, so that they sent Commissioners to endeavor to get peace, the Indians were so advised as prevented them from listening to any terms, and hopes were given them of assistance. A fort was even built in their country, under pretense of giving refuge in case of necessity; but when that time came, the gates were shut against them as enemies. They were doubly injured by this, because they relied on it for support, and were deceived. Was it not for this reliance of mutual support, their conduct would have been different."

The first to come to Greenville to consult with Wayne, were the Wyandots of Sandusky. "He told them he pitied them for their folly in listening to the British, who were very glad to urge them to fight and to give them ammunition, but who had neither the power nor the inclination to help them when the time of trial came; that hitherto the Indians had felt only the weight of his little finger, but that he would surely destroy all the tribes in the near future if they did not make peace." During the winter of 1794-1795 parties of Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, Potawatomi, Sacs, Miamis, Delawares and Shawnees came in, and on February 11th, 1795, the preliminaries of a treaty were agreed upon between the Shawnees, Delawares and Miamis, and the Americans. Arrangements were also made for a grand council with all the Indian nations at Fort Greenville, on or about the fifteenth of the ensuing June.



The assemblage of Indian warriors and headmen that met with Anthony Wayne on the sixteenth of June, and continued in session until the tenth day of August, 1795, was the most noted ever held in America. Present, were one hundred and eighty Wyandots, three hundred and eighty-one Delawares, one hundred and forty-three Shawnees, forty-five Ottawas, forty-six Chippewas, two hundred and forty Potawatomi, seventy-three Miamis and Eel Rivers, twelve Weas and Piankeshaws, and ten Kickapoos and Kaskaskias, in all eleven hundred and thirty savages. Among the renowned fighting men and chiefs present, was Tarhe, of the Wyandots, known as "The Crane," who had fought under the Cornstalk at Point Pleasant, and who had been badly wounded at the battle of Fallen Timbers. He now exercised a mighty influence for peace and remained the firm friend of the United States. Of the Miamis, the foremost was the Little Turtle, who was probably the greatest warrior and Indian diplomat of his day or time. He had defeated Harmar and destroyed St. Clair, but he now stood for an amicable adjustment. Next to Little Turtle was LeGris. Of the Shawnees, there were Blue Jacket and Catahecassa, or the Black Hoof. The latter chieftain had been present at Braddock's defeat in 1775, had fought against General Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant in 1774, and was an active leader of the Shawnees at the battles with Harmar and St. Clair. Blue Jacket had been the principal commander of the Indian forces at Fallen Timbers. Buckongahelas, of the Delawares, Au-goosh-away, of the Ottawas, Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, of the Chippewas, Keesass and Topenebee, of the Potawatomi, Little Beaver, of the Weas, and many other distinguished Indian leaders were among the hosts. The chief interpreters were William Wells, Jacques Laselle, M. Morins, Sans Crainte, Christopher Miller, Abraham Williams and Isaac Zane.

The basis of the negotiations, steadfastly maintained by Wayne, was the treaty of Fort Harmar of 1789. The general boundary established was to begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, run thence up the same to the portage between the Cuyahoga and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above old Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to a fork of that branch of the great Miami river running into the Ohio, where commenced the portage between the St. Marys of the Maumee and the Miami of the Ohio, thence westwardly to Fort Recovery, thence southwesterly, in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky. The land west of the Miami, and within the present limits of western Ohio and eastern Indiana, was cut off of the domain of the Miamis, and included the line of posts extending from Fort Washington to Fort Wayne. It was highly prized by the Indians as a hunting ground, and its cession caused a loud remonstrance from the Little Turtle. "You pointed out to us the boundary line," said the great Miami leader, "which crossed a little below Loramie's store, and struck Fort Recovery, and run from thence to the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river. Elder Brother; You have told us to speak our minds freely, and we now do it. This line takes in the greater and best part of your brothers' hunting ground; therefore, your younger brothers are of opinion, you take too much of their lands away, and confine the hunting of our young men within limits too contracted. Your brothers, the Miamis, the proprietors of these lands, and all your younger brothers present, wish you to run the line as you mentioned, to Fort Recovery, and to continue it along the road from thence to Fort Hamilton, on the Great Miami river." This, however, Wayne refused to do. The ground had been hardly won, and the United States, although willing to pay a fair remuneration, was determined to protect the outposts and inhabitants of the Ohio country.

Another controversy arose with the Little Turtle concerning the portage at Fort Wayne. The government insisted on reservations of from two to six miles square at Fort Wayne, Fort Defiance, Ouiatenon, Chicago, and other important trading places. A large tract was reserved near Detroit, and another near the Post of Michillimacinac. Clark's Grant was also specially reserved by the United States. But when Wayne insisted on a tract two miles square on the Wabash river, "at the end of the portage from the Miami of the Lake (Maumee), and about eight miles westward from Fort Wayne," the Little Turtle claimed that this was a request that neither the English nor the French had ever made of them; that this portage had in the past yielded them an important revenue, and had proved, "in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger brothers." The valiant old warrior made a stout defense of his claims, and fought to the last for all that was dear to him about Fort Wayne, but was forced to bow to the superior genius and commanding influence of the American general.

Wayne had on his side two powerful factors. The first, was the treachery of the English, which he dilated upon with telling effect. The second, was the commanding influence of Tarhe and the Wyandots of Sandusky, who were addressed with deference by the other tribes, and who threw all their influence on the side of the treaty. At last the several articles were agreed upon, and General Wayne, calling upon the separate tribes in open council for a confirmation of the pact, met with a full and unanimous response of approval. One of the originals of the treaty was deposited with the Wyandots as the custodians of all the nations. At the last arose Tarhe to make this touching and final appeal: "Father: Listen to your children, here assembled; be strong, now, and take care of all your little ones. See what a number you have suddenly acquired. Be careful of them, and do not suffer them to be imposed upon. Don't show favor to one, to the injury of any. An impartial father equally regards all his children, as well those who are ordinary, as those who may be more handsome; therefore, should any of your children come to you crying, and in distress, have pity on them, and relieve their wants."

The tribes were satisfied. A fair price had been paid to them for their lands, and satisfactory annuities had been granted. Practically all of the leading chiefs remained loyal to the government, and true to the peace. Wayne had proved himself not only successful at war, but proficient in diplomacy.



CHAPTER XVI

GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE TREATY

—Purchase of the Miami lands known as the New Purchase which led to the strengthening of Tecumseh's Confederacy,—the final struggle at Tippecanoe.

In the year 1800, William Henry Harrison was appointed by President John Adams as Governor of Indiana Territory, and he arrived at Vincennes on the tenth day of January, 1801, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties. At that time he was twenty-eight years of age, but notwithstanding his youth he had seen hard duty as a soldier and officer on the frontier and as we have seen, had served as aide-de-camp to General Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers. In that struggle he had distinguished himself for gallant conduct. At a time when a detachment of the troops were wavering under the murderous fire of the savages, and hesitating as to whether they would advance or retreat, he had galloped to the front of the line, and with inspiring words had cheered the soldiers on to victory. The report of General Wayne says that he "rendered the most essential services by communicating his orders in every direction, and by his bravery in exciting the troops to press for victory."

In personal appearance, Harrison "was commanding, and his manners prepossessing. He was about six feet high, of rather slender form, straight, and of a firm, elastic gait, even at the time of his election to the presidency, though then closely bordering on seventy. He had a keen, penetrating eye, denoting quickness of apprehension, promptness and energy."

Though descended from an old and aristocratic family of Virginia, and having been reared amid surroundings of luxury and elegance, the youthful soldier never shrank from the most arduous duty and the severest hardships of camp or field. At the time of his first arrival at Fort Washington (Cincinnati), after the defeat of St. Clair's army, he had been placed in command of a company of men who were escorting packhorses to Fort Hamilton. The forest was full of hostile savages, and the winter season was setting in with cold rains and snow. The company was ill provided with tents and Harrison had nothing to shelter him from the weather but his uniform and army blanket. He not only eluded the attacks of the Indians and convoyed his charge through in safety, but made no complaint whatever to his commanding general, and received St. Clair's "public thanks for the fidelity and good conduct he displayed." "During the campaign on the Wabash, the troops were put upon a half pound of bread a day. This quantity only was allowed to officers of every rank, and rigidly conformed to in the general's own family. The allowance for dinner was uniformly divided between the company, and not an atom more was permitted. In the severe winter campaign of 1812-13, he slept under a thinner tent than any other person, whether officer or soldier; and it was the general observation of the officers, that his accommodations might generally be known by their being the worst in the army. Upon the expedition up the Thames all his baggage was contained in a valise, while his bedding consisted of a single blanket, over his saddle, and even this he gave to Colonel Evans, a British officer, who was wounded. His subsistence was exactly that of a common soldier. On the night after the action upon the Thames, thirty-five British officers supped with him upon fresh beef roasted before the fire, without either salt or bread, and without ardent spirits of any kind. Whether upon the march, or in the camp, the whole army was regularly under arms at daybreak. Upon no occasion did he fail to be out himself, however severe the weather, and was generally the first officer on horseback of the whole army. Indeed, he made it a point on every occasion, to set an example of fortitude and patience to the men, and share with them every hardship, difficulty and danger."

Of his personal courage in the presence of great danger and peril, there can be no question. Judge Law says: "William Henry Harrison was as brave a man as ever lived." At Tippecanoe, after the first savage yell, he mounted on horseback and rode from line to line encouraging his men, although he knew that he was at all times a conspicuous mark for Indian bullets. One leaden missile came so close as to pass through the rim of his hat, and Colonel Abraham Owen, Thomas Randolph and others were killed at his side. "Upon one occasion, as he was approaching an angle of the line, against which the Indians were advancing with horrible yells. Lieutenant Emmerson of the dragoons seized the bridle of his horse and earnestly entreated that he would not go there; but the Governor, putting spurs to his horse, pushed on to the point of attack, where the enemy was received with firmness and driven back."

To these traits, his fearless courage and willingness to share in the burdens and hardships of the common soldier, may be attributed his great and lasting hold on the affections of the old Kentucky and southern Indiana Indian fighters. To them he was not only a hero, but something almost approaching a demi-god. It is pleasing to remember that when the expedition against the Prophet was noised abroad, that Colonel Joseph H. Daviess, then one of the most eloquent and powerful advocates at the Kentucky bar, offered in a personal letter to the General, to join the expedition as a private in the ranks; that Colonel Abraham Owen, one of the most renowned Indian fighters of that day, joined the army voluntarily as an aide to its leader, and that Governor Scott, of Kentucky, sent two companies of mounted volunteer infantry under Captains Funk and Geiger, to participate in the campaign. It is also pleasing to remember that the warm affection of the pioneers of that early day was transmitted to another and younger generation who grew up long after the Indian wars were over, and who gave a rousing support to the old general that made him the ninth president of the United States.

On his arrival at Vincennes in 1801, the population of that town was about seven hundred and fourteen persons. The surrounding country contained about eight hundred and nineteen more, while fifty-five fur-traders were scattered along the Wabash, who carried on a traffic more or less illicit with the Indians. A large part of the inhabitants of Vincennes belonged to that class of French-Canadians, who produced the La Plantes, the Barrens, and the Brouillettes of that time, some of them renowned Indian interpreters and river guides, who figured prominently in the scenes and contests that followed. The remaining part of the population consisted of settlers from the states, the more conspicuous being the Virginians, who were afterwards denominated as the "aristocrats," but who in reality contributed more to the growth and prosperity of the frontier posts than any other element. From this class of Virginians, some of them men of learning and attainment, Harrison selected his retainers and henchmen. Chief among them was Benjamin Parke, one of the commanders at Tippecanoe, and the founder of the State law library in after years; and also Waller Taylor and Thomas Randolph, two of his aides in the Wabash campaign and of his immediate military family. These men, together with Harrison, comprised the "inner circle," who administered the affairs of Knox County and Vincennes, and at that time Knox County held the lead and control in public transactions throughout the Territory. That they favored the suspension of the sixth article of the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory, is now established history. But they also organized the courts and the representative assemblies of that day; enacted and enforced the public laws, and set about to establish institutions of learning. Harrison in particular was a friend of the schools. Besides that, these men and their followers organized the militia, gave the woodsmen a training in the manual of arms, and exercised a wide-awake and eternal vigilance for the safety of the frontier. The military instinct of the early Virginian was one of the great factors that determined the conquest and established the permanent peace of the new land.

Probably no magistrate was ever invested with greater powers in a new country than was General Harrison in the first years of his governorship. "Amongst the powers conferred upon him, were those, jointly with the judges, of the legislative functions of the Territory; the appointment of all the civil officers within the territory, and all the military officers of a grade inferior in rank to that of general, commander in chief of the militia—the absolute and uncontrolled power of pardoning all offenses—sole commissioner of treaties with the Indians, with unlimited powers, and the power of confirming, at his option, all grants of land." That he was left in control of these powers both under the administrations of President Jefferson and President Madison is sufficient confirmation of the trust and confidence they reposed in him. In the years to follow, he was to conduct a great number of difficult negotiations with the chiefs and head warriors of the Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Potawatomi, Kickapoos and other tribes, but in all these treaties he was pre-eminently fair with the savages, never resorting to force or treachery, or stooping to low intrigue or fraud. We have a statement from his own pen as to his manner of conducting an Indian treaty. In a letter from Vincennes on the third day of March, 1803, to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, we have the following: "I should have passed over without an observation, if he had not hinted at the use of unfair means in procuring the consent of the Indians to the treaties I have made with them, and as I have never before, that I recollect, informed you of my mode of proceeding on these occasions I have thought it proper to do so at the present moment. Whenever the Indians have assembled for any public purpose the use of ardent spirits has been strictly interdicted until the object for which they were convened was accomplished, and if in spite of my vigilance it had been procured, a stop was immediately put to all business until it was consumed and its effects completely over. Every conference with the Indians has been in public. All persons who chose to attend were admitted, and the most intelligent and respectable characters in the neighborhood specially invited to witness the fairness of the transaction. No treaty has ever been signed until each article was particularly and repeatedly explained by the most capable and confidential interpreters. Sketches of the tract of country about to be ceded have always been submitted to the Indians, and their own rough delineations made on the floor with a bit of charcoal have proved their perfect comprehension of its situation and extent." Copies of the old Western Sun, amply testify to the fact that prior to the important treaties of 1809, at Fort Wayne and Vincennes, he issued a public proclamation at the latter place, prohibiting any traffic in liquor with the Indians, so that their judgment might not be perverted; that he constantly inveighed against this illegal commerce with the tribes, and that he at various times attempted to restrain the violence of the squatters and settlers who sought to appropriate the lands of their red neighbors. The language of his first message to the territorial legislature reads thus: "The humane and benevolent intentions of the government, however, will forever be defeated, unless effectual measures be devised to prevent the sale of ardent spirits to those unfortunate people. The law which has been passed by Congress for that purpose has been found entirely ineffectual, because its operation has been construed to relate to the Indian country exclusively. In calling your attention to this subject, gentlemen, I am persuaded that it is unnecessary to remind you that the article of compact makes it your duty to attend to it. The interests of your constituents, the interests of the miserable Indians, and your own feelings, will urge you to take it into your most serious consideration and provide the remedy which is to save thousands of our fellow creatures. So destructive has been the progress of intemperance, that whole villages have been swept away. A miserable remnant is all that remains to mark the homes and situation of many numerous and warlike tribes."

Again, at Fort Wayne, on the seventeenth of September, 1809, preliminary to the famous treaty of that year, this entry appears in the journal of the official proceedings: "The Potawatomis waited on the Governor and requested a little liquor, which was refused. The Governor observed that he was determined to shut up the liquor casks until all the business was finished." This is the conduct throughout of a wise and humane man dealing with an inferior race, but determined to take no advantage of their folly.

It was the steady and uniform policy of the United States government to extinguish the Indian titles to the lands along the Wabash and elsewhere, so that they might be opened up to the increasing tide of white settlers. Contrary to the practices of most governments, however, in their dealings with aborigines, the United States had established the precedent of recognizing the right of the red men to the occupancy of the soil and of entering into treaties of purchase with the various tribes, paying them in goods and money for their land, while allowing them the privilege of taking wild game in the territory ceded. President Jefferson had always insisted on the payment of annuities in these purchases, instead of a lump sum, so that a fund might be created for the continual support of the tribes from year to year, and so that they might be enabled to purchase horses, cattle, hogs and the instruments of husbandry and thus gradually enter upon the ways of civilization. That the dream of Jefferson was never realized; that the North American savages never adopted the manners and pursuits of their white brethren, does not bespeak any the less for the humane instincts of his heart.

In the negotiation of these treaties in the northwest, Governor Harrison acted as the minister plenipotentiary of the government, and the numerous Indian treaties of that day were conducted under express authority and command from the City of Washington. The series of negotiations finally terminated in the Treaty of Fort Wayne on September 30, 1809, by which the United States acquired the title to about 2,900,000 acres, the greater part of which lay above the old Vincennes tract ceded by the Treaty of Grouseland, and below the mouth of Big Raccoon Creek in Parke County. "At that period, 1809," says Dillon, "the total quantity of land ceded to the United States, under treaties which were concluded between Governor Harrison and various Indian tribes, amounted to about 29,719,530 acres."

As the consummation of that treaty was the principal and immediate cause which led up to the great controversy with Tecumseh, and the stirring events that followed, including the Battle of Tippecanoe, and as the charge was subsequently made by Tecumseh that it was brought about through the threats of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, it may rightfully be said to be the most important Indian treaty ever negotiated in the west, outside of General Wayne's Treaty of Greenville, in 1795. We will now enter into the details of that transaction.

That part of the lands acquired by the United States Government by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, and being situated in the valley of the Wabash and its tributaries may be thus described: It lay south of a line drawn from the mouth of the Big Raccoon Creek, in what is now Parke county, and extending southeast to a point on the east fork of White River above Brownstown. This line was commonly called The Ten O'clock Line, because the direction was explained to the Indians as toward the point where the sun was at ten o'clock. The whole territory acquired in the Wabash valley and elsewhere embraced about 2,900,000 acres and in the Wabash region was to be not less than thirty miles in width at its narrowest point. It will thus be seen that the tract lay directly north of, and adjoining the white settlements in and about Vincennes. It was afterwards known as the New Purchase.

There had been frequent and bitter clashes between the settlers and the Wea and Potawatomi Indians of this part of the territory for years. Justice and right was not always on the side of the white man. An accurate commentator, speaking of the early frontiersmen, says: "They eagerly craved the Indian lands; they would not be denied entrance to the thinly-peopled territory wherein they intended to make homes for themselves and their children. Rough, masterful, lawless, they were neither daunted by the powers of the red warriors whose wrath they braved, nor awed by the displeasure of the government whose solemn engagements they violated."

The Treaty of Greenville had given the undisputed possession and occupancy of all the lands above Vincennes and vicinity, and embraced within the limits of the territory ceded by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, to the Indians. They were given the authority by that pact to drive off a squatter or "punish him in such manner as they might think fit," indulging, however, in no act of "private revenge or retaliation." No trader was even allowed to enter this domain unless he was licensed by the government.

It is needless to say that no fine sense of right and justice existed either in the mind of the white land-grabber or in that of his red antagonist. Many unlawful invasions of the Indian lands were made. Moreover, many of the fur traders along the Wabash were of the lowest type of humanity. They employed any and all means to cheat and defraud the Indians by the barter and sale of cheap trinkets and bad whiskey and often violated every principle of honesty and fair-dealing. This kind of conduct on the part of settlers and traders furnished ample justification in the minds of the ignorant savages for the making of reprisals. Many horses were stolen by them, and often foul murders were committed by the more lawless element. This horse-stealing and assassination led in turn to counter-attacks on the part of the whites. In time, these acts of violence on the part of the vicious element in both races spread hate and enmity in every direction. This kind of history was made. "A Muskoe Indian was killed in Vincennes by an Italian inn-keeper without any just cause. The governor ordered that the murderer should be apprehended, but so great was the antagonism to the Indians among all classes, that on his trial the jury acquitted the homicide almost without any deliberation. About the same time, two Wea Indians were badly wounded near Vincennes by some whites without the slightest provocation. Such facts exasperated the Indians, and led to their refusal to deliver up Indians who had committed like offenses against the white man." These things occurred shortly prior to the Tippecanoe campaign, but a condition similar to this had existed for some time before the Treaty of Fort Wayne. The Governor was not insensible to the true state of affairs. He once said: "I wish I could say the Indians were treated with justice and propriety on all occasions by our citizens, but it is far otherwise. They are often abused and maltreated, and it is rare that they obtain any satisfaction for the most unprovoked wrongs." But he also recognized the fact, that the two races, so incompatible in habits, manners, customs and tastes, could not dwell in peace together; that the progress of the white settlements ought not to and could not on that account be stayed; that it was up to him as the chief magistrate of the western country and as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to solve if he could, the troublous problem before him, and he accordingly instructed Mr. John Johnston, the Agent of Indian Affairs, to assemble the tribes at Fort Wayne for the purpose of making a new treaty.



There were many false sentimentalists of that day, who not unlike their modern brethren, wept many crocodile tears over the fate of the "poor Indian." They charged that the Governor, in the ensuing negotiations, resorted to trickery, and that he availed himself of the threats and violence of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, in order to bring the hesitating tribes to the terms of the purchase. In the face of the revealed and undisputed facts of history, these facts were and are entirely false, and were evidently put in motion by the disgruntled office seekers at Vincennes as food for the foolish.

The position of Governor Harrison during the whole course of his administration seems to have been this: he sought to ameliorate the miserable condition of the savages at all times; sought by all means within his power to bring to punishment those who committed outrages against them; constantly demanded that the illegal traffic in liquor be stopped. However, neither Governor Harrison nor any other man, however powerful, could stop the hand of fate, or abrogate the eternal law of the survival of the fittest. After every endeavor to put a stop to abuses, and to quiet the impending storm on the frontier, he resorted to the next, and seemingly only available means of putting an end to the difficulty. That is, he provided for the separation of the two races as far as possible so as to prevent the conflicts between them; he provided for the payment of annuities for their support and so that they might purchase horses and cattle and implements of husbandry, and thus enter gradually upon the pursuits of peace. That the plan was not feasible does not detract from the fairness and benevolence of the proposer. He was but following the uniform custom which the government had at that time adopted and which the best minds of that age endorsed. He could not foresee, in the light of that day, that the red men of the forest would not accept the ways of civilization, and that all attempts of the government, however charitable, would be wasted and in vain.

The Governor set out for the council house at old Fort Wayne on the first day of September, 1809, on horseback, and accompanied only by Peter Jones, his secretary; a personal servant; Joseph Barron, a famous Indian interpreter; a Frenchman for a guide, and two Indians, probably Delawares of the friendly White River tribes. He travelled eastwardly toward the western borders of Dearborn county, and thence north to the Post. Joseph Barron, the interpreter, is thus spoken of by Judge Law: "He knew the Indian character well; he had lived among them many years; spoke fluently the language of every tribe which dwelt on the upper Wabash, understood their customs, habits, manners and charlatanry well, and although but imperfectly educated, was one of the most remarkable men I ever knew."

The Governor arrived at the Post on the fifteenth of the month, at the same time with the Delawares and their interpreter, John Conner.

To appreciate properly the hazard of this journey of two weeks through an untamed wilderness, across rivers and through dense forests, camping at night in the solitude of the woods, and exposed at all time to the attacks of the savages, one must take into consideration that already Tecumseh and the Prophet were forming their confederacy and preaching a new crusade at Tippecanoe; that they were fast filling the minds of their savage hearers with that fierce malice and hatred which was to break forth in the flame of revolt in a little over two years hence; that the British agents at Maiden were loading the Indians with presents and filling their ears with falsification as to the intentions of Harrison; that they were already arming them with guns, bullets, knives and tomahawks, and that there were those among them who would not hesitate at assassination, if they might hope to reap a British reward. Notwithstanding these facts, Harrison did not hesitate.

The scene about to be enacted was a memorable one. On the one hand were arrayed the Governor, with his servant and secretary, four Indian interpreters and a few officers of the Post; on the other, the painted and feather-bedecked warriors and sachems of the Miamis, the Potawatomi, the Delawares and the Weas. On the third day of the council, eight hundred and ninety-two warriors were present; on the day of the actual signing of the treaty, thirteen hundred and ninety. No such body of red men had been assembled to meet a commissioner of the United States since the treaty with Anthony Wayne in 1795. Even at that assemblage there were present only eleven hundred and thirty.

There were chiefs of the Mississinewa, loud and defiant, who openly declared their connection with the British. There was Winamac, the Potawatomi, who afterwards slaughtered the surrendered garrison at Fort Dearborn, and boasted of his murder. There were Silver Heels and Pecan, Five Medals and The Owl. But above them all stood Little Turtle, the Miami. He had been present at the defeat of Harmar and the slaughter of St. Clair's army. He had fought against Wayne at Fallen Timbers. In 1797 he had visited the great white father at Philadelphia, President Washington, and had been presented with a brace of elegantly mounted pistols by the Baron Kosciusko. There were braves present whose hands had been besmeared with the blood of innocent women and children—who had raised the savage yell of terror while setting firebrands to the cabin and tomahawking its inmates.

During the days that were to follow there were many loud and violent harangues; parties of warriors arrived with presents of the British emissaries in their hands, and saying that they had been advised never to yield another foot of territory; at one time, on September twenty-sixth, the Potawatomi, in open assembly, raised a shout of defiance against the Miamis, poured out torrents of abuse on the heads of their chieftains and withdrew from the council declaring that the tomahawk was raised. Amid all this loud jangling and savage quarreling the Governor remained unperturbed and steady to his purpose. Notwithstanding frequent demands, he constantly refused to deal out any liquor except in the most meager quantities—he restrained the Potawatomi and made them smoke the pipe of peace with their offended allies—he met and answered all the arguments suggested by the British agents—and after fifteen days of constant and unremitting effort won over the chiefs of the Mississinewa and gained the day.

The official account of the proceedings as made by Peter Jones, secretary to the Governor, and now reposing in the archives of the United States government, shows that instead of attempting to make any purchase of Indian lands when only a small number of representatives of the tribes were present, that the Governor on the eighteenth of September, dispatched messengers to Detroit to summon certain Delawares and Potawatomi who were absent; that on the same day he also directed Joseph Barron to go to the Miami villages along the Wabash to call in Richardville, one of the principal chiefs of that tribe. The records also show that while the Governor had some private conferences with some of the principal chiefs for the purpose of urging their support to his plans, that he addressed all his principal remarks to the tribes in open council of all the warriors, and at a time when four interpreters were present, to-wit: William Wells, Joseph Barron, John Conner and Abraham Ash, to translate his observations.

The first of these great councils was on September 22. The arguments of the Governor, so interesting at this day, are set forth: "He urged the vast benefit which they (the Indians) derived from their annuities, without which they would not be able to clothe their women and children. The great advance in the price of goods and the depression in the value of their peltries from the trouble in Europe, to which there was no probability of a speedy determination. The little game which remained in their country, particularly that part of it which he proposed to purchase. The usurpation of it by a banditti of Muscoes and other tribes; that the sale of it would not prevent their hunting upon it as long as any game remained. But that it was absolutely necessary that they should adopt some other plan for their support. That the raising of cattle and hogs required little labor, and would be the surest resources as a substitute for the wild animals which they had so unfortunately destroyed for the sake of their skins. Their fondness for hunting might still be gratified if they would prevent their young men from hunting at improper seasons of the year. But to do this effectually, it would be necessary that they should find a certain support in their villages in the summer season. That the proposed addition to their annuities would enable them to purchase the domestic animals necessary to commence raising them on a large scale. He observed also that they were too apt to impute their poverty and the scarcity of game to the encroachments of the white settlers. But this is not the true cause. It is owing to their own improvidence and to the advice of the British traders by whom they were stimulated to kill the wild animals for their skins alone, when the flesh was not wanted. That this was the cause of their scarcity is evident from their being found in much greater quantity on the south than on the north shore of the Wabash, where no white men but traders were ever seen. The remnant of the Weas who inhabit the tract of country which was wanted, were from their vicinity to the whites, poor and miserable; all the proceeds of their hunts and the great part of their annuities expended in whiskey. The Miami Nation would be more respectable and formidable if its scattered members were assembled in the center of their country."

The reasoning of the Governor was cogent. The motive that had prompted the British to hold the frontier posts for so many years after the revolution, was to secure a monopoly of the fur trade. Their traders constantly urged the tribes to bring in peltries, and this led to a merciless slaughter of animals for their hides alone. These measures involved the ultimate destruction of the food supply of the tribes. It was also true that the tribes along the Wabash were exhausting the supply of wild game. The plan of inducing them to accept annuities and to purchase cattle, hogs and other domestic animals for the purpose of replenishing their food supply, seemed highly plausible to the minds of that day. That the Weas on the lower Wabash would be better off if removed from the immediate neighborhood of the white settlements where they could purchase fire-water and indulge their vices, did not admit of doubt. It was possibly the only plan of bringing relief from the troubles which were daily augmenting between the two races of men.

From the first, however, the appeal of the Governor met with a cold reception at the hands of the Mississinewa chiefs. That their feelings in the matter were prompted by their jealousy of the other tribes present, and their claim to the sole disposal of any of the lands along the Wabash, there can be no doubt. Little Turtle was soon won over, but the younger and more aggressive chiefs of the Miami villages were hostile to him and openly expressed their disapproval of his conduct. The Mississinewa chiefs were also violently opposed to the pretensions of Winamac and the Potawatomi. They claimed that the Potawatomi were new comers and usurpers and had no right to a voice in the sale of lands in the Wabash valley. The Mississinewa chiefs prevailed. On the twenty-fourth the Miamis, "declared their determination not to sell a foot of land, observing that it was time to put a stop to the encroachments of the whites who were eternally purchasing their lands for less than the real value of them. That they had also heard that the governor had no instructions to make any purchase, but was making it upon his own authority to please the white people whom he governed." On the twenty-fifth, the Governor, to overcome their opposition, made another long appeal in open council, declaring that the British alone were responsible for the feeling between the races. On that occasion he gave expression to certain ideas that Tecumseh afterwards eagerly seized upon as an argument in favor of the communistic ownership of all the Indian lands, and as an argument against the sale of 1809. The governor said: "Potawatomis and Miamis, look upon each other as brothers, and at the same time look upon your grandfathers, the Delawares. I love to see you all united. I wish to hear you speak with one voice the dictates of one heart. All must go together. The consent of all is necessary. Delawares and Potawatomis, I told you that I could do nothing with the Miamis without your consent. Miamis, I now tell you that nothing can be done without your consent. The consent of the whole is necessary."

This second appeal met with the same reception as the first. On the twenty-sixth, the Miamis, again declared that they would never consent to the sale of any more of their lands. "That they had been advised by their Father, the British, never to sell another foot." At this moment it was that the Potawatomi started a violent altercation, setting up a shout of open defiance in the council house and threatening to resort to force. On repairing to the Governor's headquarters, however, and reporting their conduct, Harrison, "blamed them for their rashness and made them promise not to offer the Miamis any further insults."

On the evening of the same day, the Governor held another extended conference with the Miami chiefs, and explained to them that the British were to blame for all their troubles. His remarks were prophetic. He said: "In case of a war with the latter (the Americans), the English knew that they were unable to defend Canada with their own force; they were therefore desirous of interposing the Indians between them and danger." The death of Tecumseh in the British ranks was part of the fulfillment of this prediction.

All the conferences proved in vain. On the twenty-seventh, Silver Heels, a Miami chief, was won over and spoke in favor of the treaty, and Harrison succeeded on the twenty-eighth in reconciling the Miamis and Potawatomi, but in full council on the twenty-ninth, The Owl, a Miami chief, flatly refused to sell an acre; made a bitter and sarcastic speech, and among other things said; "You remember the time when we first took each other by the hand at Greenville. You there told us where the line would be between us. You told us to love our women and children and to take care of our lands. You told us that the Spanish had a great deal of money, the English, and some of your people likewise, but that we should not sell our lands to any of them. In consequence of which last fall we put our hands upon our hearts and determined not to sell our lands." Harrison answered in a speech of two hours length, and ended by saying, "that he was tired of waiting and that on the next day he would submit to them the form of a treaty which he wished them to sign and if they would not agree to it he would extinguish the council fire."

We now come to a circumstance which refutes much that Tecumseh afterwards claimed. In his famous meeting with the Governor at Vincennes in August, 1810, and speaking of the treaty of 1809, he said: "Brother, this land that was sold, and the goods that were given for it were only done by a few. The treaty was afterwards brought here, and the Weas were induced to give their consent because of their small numbers. The treaty at Fort Wayne was made through the threats of Winnemac; but in the future we are prepared to punish those chiefs who may come forward to propose to sell the land." The record of the official proceedings, made at the time, show, however, that immediately upon the close of Harrison's last speech of September twenty-ninth, that Winamac arose to reply, but upon noting that fact all the Mississinewa Miamis left the council house in contempt. Not only was the treaty of 1809 concluded by a larger number of Indians than were present at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, but the influence of Winamac with the Miamis seems to have been of a very negligible quantity.

The truth is that the final consummation of the pact of 1809 was brought about by the ready tact and hard common sense of Harrison himself. On the morning of the thirtieth of September, the very day the treaty was signed, it was thought by all the officers and gentlemen present that the mission of the Governor was fruitless. No solution of the obstinacy of the Mississinewa chiefs had been discovered. Nothing daunted, Harrison resolved to make one more attempt. He took with him his interpreter, Joseph Barron, a man in whom he had the utmost confidence, and visited the camps of the Miamis. He was received well and told them that he came, not as a representative of the President, but as an old friend with whom they had been many years acquainted. "That he plainly saw that there was something in their hearts which was not consistent with the attachment they ought to bear to their great father, and that he was afraid that they had listened to bad birds. That he had come to them for the purpose of hearing every cause of complaint against the United States, and that he would not leave them until they laid open everything that oppressed their hearts. He knew that they could have no solid objection to the proposed treaty, for they were all men of sense and reflection, and all knew that they would be greatly benefited by it." Calling then, upon the principal chief of the Eel River tribe, who had served under him in General Wayne's army, he demanded to know what his objections to the treaty were. In reply, the chief drew forth a copy of the Treaty of Grouseland and said: "Father, here are your own words. In this paper you have promised that you would consider the Miamis as the owners of the land on the Wabash. Why then, are you about to purchase it from others?"

"The Governor assured them that it was not his intention to purchase the land from the other tribes. That he had always said, and was ready now to confess that the land belonged to the Miamis and to no other tribe. That if the other tribes had been invited to the treaty, it was at their particular request (the Miamis). The Potawatomi had indeed taken higher ground than either the Governor or the Miamis expected. They claimed an equal right to the land in question with the Miamis, but what of this? Their claiming it gave them no right, and it was not the intention of the Governor to put anything in the treaty which would in the least alter their claim to their lands on the Wabash, as established by the Treaty of Grouseland, unless they chose to satisfy the Delawares with respect to their claim to the country watered by the White river. That even the whole compensation proposed to be given for the lands would be given to the Miamis if they insisted upon it, but that they knew the offense which this would give to the other tribes, and that it was always the Governor's intention so to draw the treaty that the Potawatomi and Delawares would be considered as participating in the advantages of the treaty as allies of the Miamis; not as having any rights to the land."

The Governor's resourcefulness saved the day. There was an instant change of sentiment and a brightening of the dark faces. The claim of the Miamis acknowledged; their savage pride appeased, and their title to the land verified, they were ready for the treaty. Pecan, the chief, informed the Governor that he might retire to the fort and that they would shortly wait upon him with good news. The treaty was immediately drafted, and on the same day signed and sealed by the headmen and chiefs without further dissent.

Thus was concluded the Treaty of Fort Wayne of September 30, 1809. The articles were fully considered and signed only after due deliberation of at least a fortnight. The terms were threshed out in open council, before the largest assembly of red men ever engaged in a treaty in the western country up to that time. No undue influence, fraud or coercion were brought to bear—every attempt at violence was promptly checked by the Governor—no resort was had to the evil influence of bribes or intoxicants. When agreed upon, it was executed without question.



CHAPTER XVII

RESULTS OF THE TREATY

—Harrison's political enemies at Vincennes rally against him in the open, and are defeated in the courts.

The Treaty of Fort Wayne having been consummated and certain disputes relative to horse-stealing and other depredations having been arranged between the two races, the Governor, on the fourth of October, 1809, set out on his return to Vincennes. He travelled on horseback, accompanied by his secretary and interpreter, passing through the Indian villages at the forks of the Wabash and striking the towns of the Miamis at the mouth of the Mississinewa. Here dwelt John B. Richardville, or Peshewah, a celebrated chief of that tribe, who was later chosen as principal sachem on the death of Little Turtle. Richardville had not been personally present at Fort Wayne, but he now received the Governor cordially, and gave his unqualified approval to the previous proceedings.

The day before his arrival at Peshewah's town, the Governor met with a singular experience, which not only served to illustrate the advancing ravages of liquor among the tribes but Harrison's intimate knowledge of Indian laws, customs and usages. On coming into the camp of Pecan, a Mississinewa chieftain, he discovered that one of the warriors had received a mortal wound in a "drunken frolic" of the preceding evening. The chiefs informed him that the slayer had not been apprehended, whereupon the Governor recommended that if the act "should appear to have proceeded from previous malice," that the offender should be punished, "but if it should appear to be altogether accident, to let him know it, and he would assist to make up the matter with the friends of the deceased." The payment of wergild or "blood-money" among the Indian tribes in compensation of the loss of life or limb, is strongly in accord with the ancient Saxon law, yet it seems to have prevailed as far back at least as the time of William Penn, for in one of his letters describing the aborigines of America, he says: "The justice they (the Indians) have is pecuniary; in case of any wrong or evil fact, be it murder itself, they atone by feasts and presents of their wampum, which is proportioned to the offense, or person injured, or of the sex they are of; for, in case they kill a woman, they pay double, and the reason they render, is that she can raise children, which men cannot do." Later on, at Vincennes, the Governor had another and similar experience which affords additional proof that the custom above mentioned was still prevalent. A Potawatomi chieftain from the prairies came in attended by some young men. He found there about one hundred and fifty of the Kickapoos, who were receiving their annuity, and he immediately made complaint to the Governor as follows: "My Father," said he, "it is now twelve moons since these people, the Kickapoos, killed my brother; I have never revenged it, but they have promised to cover up his blood, but they have not done it. I wish you to tell them, my father, to pay me for my brother, or some of them will lose their hair before they go from this." The Governor accordingly advised the chief of the Kickapoos to satisfy the Potawatomi. On the following day the latter again called upon the Governor, and said: "See there, my father," showing three blankets and some other articles, "see what these people have offered me for my brother, but my brother was not a hog that I should take three blankets for him," and he declared his intention of killing some of them unless they would satisfy him in the way he proposed. The Governor, upon inquiry, finding that the goods of the Kickapoos were all distributed, directed, on account of the United States, that a small addition be made to what he had received.

At the villages on Eel river the Governor met with certain of the Weas of the lower region, and dispatched them to summon their chiefs to meet with him at Vincennes and ratify the treaty. He arrived at the latter place on the twelfth of October, having been absent for a period of about six weeks, and found that the complete success of his mission had restored in a large measure that popularity which he had beforetime lost on account of his advocacy of slavery. The acquisition was heralded far and wide as a measure calculated in all respects to forward the interests of the Territory. Not only was the total domain acquired, vast in acreage, (being computed at about 2,900,000 acres), but it was considered extremely fertile, well watered, and as containing salt springs and valuable mines. Once the Weas and other tribes were removed from close proximity to the settlements, it was confidently expected that the old clashes would cease and that the new territory would be speedily surveyed and opened up for entry and purchase to within twelve miles of the mouth of the Vermilion. The Indians also, seemed well satisfied. The Potawatomi had been urgent; Richardville, Little Turtle and all the Miamis had given their consent; the Weas and Kickapoos were about to ratify.

Nothing was then heard of the pretensions of the Shawnee Prophet or his abler brother. In a message to the territorial legislature in 1810, reviewing the events of this period, Harrison said: "It was not until eight months after the conclusion of the treaty, and after his design of forming a combination against the United States had been discovered and defeated, that the pretensions of the Prophet, in regard to the land in question, were made known. A furious clamor was then raised by the foreign agents among us, and other disaffected persons, against the policy which had excluded from the treaty this great and influential character, as he is termed, and the doing so expressly attributed to the personal ill-will on the part of the negotiator. No such ill-will did in fact exist. I accuse myself, indeed, of an error in the patronage and support which I afforded him on his arrival on the Wabash, before his hostility to the United States had been developed. But on no principle of propriety or policy could he have been made a party to the treaty. The personage, called the Prophet, is not a chief of the tribe to which he belongs, but an outcast from it, rejected and hated by the real chiefs, the principal of whom was present at the treaty, and not only disclaimed on the part of his tribe any title to the land ceded, but used his personal influence with the chiefs of the other tribes to effect the cession."

The "principal chief" of the Shawnees above alluded to was undoubtedly Black Hoof, or Catahecassa, who at this time lived in the first town of that tribe, at Wapakoneta, Ohio. Being near to Fort Wayne he had no doubt attended the great council at that place. He had been a renowned warrior, as already shown, and had been present at Braddock's Defeat, at Point Pleasant, and at St. Clair's disaster, but when Anthony Wayne conquered the Indians at Fallen Timbers, Black Hoof had given up, and he had afterwards remained steadfast in his allegiance to the United States government. When Tecumseh afterwards attempted to form his confederacy, he met with a firm and steady resistance from Black Hoof, and his influence was such that no considerable body of the Shawnees ever joined the Prophet's camp. Black Hoof died in 1831 at the advanced age of one hundred and ten years, and tradition says that like Moses, "his eye was not dim; nor his natural force abated." The fact that Black Hoof, who was of great fame among his tribe, as both orator and statesman, made no claim to any of the lands sold below the Vermilion, is strong cumulative proof of the assertion afterwards made by Harrison to Tecumseh, that any claims of his tribe to the lands on the Wabash were without foundation.

The personal admirers and intimate associates of Harrison, were, of course, overjoyed. They were no doubt influenced to some extent by the fact that another long lease of power was in sight. Their leader's victory would inure to their own benefit. Still, there were no cravens among them. A banquet followed, participated in by a number of the leading citizens of the town and adjacent country. Judge Henry Vanderburgh, of the Territorial Court, presided, and toasts were drank to the treaty, Governor Harrison, his secretary, Peter Jones, and the "honest interpreter" Joseph Barron. Of those present on that occasion, some were afterwards officers at Tippecanoe, and one, Thomas Randolph, fell at the side of his chief.

There were those, however, who were not to be silenced by the Governor's triumph. The political battles of that time were extremely vitriolic, and the fights over territorial politics had been filled with hate. Certain foes of the Governor not only appeared in Knox county, but eventually in the halls of the national congress, and there were those who did not hesitate to question the Governor's integrity. Among those who bitterly opposed Harrison was one William McIntosh, "a Scotchman of large property at Vincennes, who had been for many years hostile to the Governor, and who was not believed to be very partial to the government of the United States." Harrison terms him as a "Scotch Tory." One John Small made an affidavit before Judge Benjamin Parke that prior to the year 1805, McIntosh had been on good terms with Harrison, but that Harrison's advocacy of a representative government for the territory, or its advancement to the second grade, had turned him into an enemy. However this may be, Harrison and his friends, in order to vindicate his fame at home and abroad, now resolved to bring an action for damages in the territorial courts against McIntosh, "for having asserted that he had cheated the Indians, in the last treaty which had been made with them at Fort Wayne." The suit being brought to issue, it was found that of the territorial judges then on the bench, one, probably Judge Parke, was a personal friend of the Governor, and one a personal friend of McIntosh. These gentlemen, therefore, both retired, and the Honorable Waller Taylor, who had recently come into the territory assumed the ermine. A jury was selected by the court naming two elisors, who in turn selected a panel of forty-eight persons, from which the plaintiff and defendant each struck twelve, and from the remaining twenty-four the jury was drawn by lot. With this "struck jury," the cause proceeded to a hearing. The following account, given in Dawson's Harrison, will prove of interest: "Before a crowded audience, this interesting trial was continued from ten A. M., till one o'clock at night. Every person concerned in the Indian Department, or who could know anything of the circumstances of the late treaty at Fort Wayne, was examined, and every latitude that was asked for, or attempted by the defendant, in the examination, permitted. Finding that the testimony of all the witnesses went to prove the justice and integrity of the Governor's conduct in relation to everything connected with the Indian Department, the defendant began to ask questions relating to some points of his civil administration. To this the jury as well as the court objected, the latter observing that it was necessary that the examination should be confined to the matter at issue. But at the earnest request of the Governor the defendant was permitted to pursue his own course and examine the witnesses upon every point which he might think proper. The defendant's counsel, abandoning all idea of justification, pleaded only for a mitigation of damages. After a retirement of one hour the jury returned a verdict of $4,000 damages. To pay this sum, a large amount of the defendant's lands were exposed for sale, and in the Governor's absence in the command of the army the ensuing year, was bought in by his agent. Two-thirds of his property has since been returned to McIntosh and the remaining part given to some of the orphan children of those distinguished citizens who fell a sacrifice to their patriotism in the last war."

The head chief of the Weas at this time was Lapoussier, whose name would indicate that he was of French extraction. He arrived at Vincennes on the fifteenth day of October, with fifteen warriors and was later followed by Negro Legs, Little Eyes and Shawanoe, who came in with other companies of the tribe. On the twenty-fourth, the Governor assembled them for the purpose, as he stated, of ascertaining whether they "were in a situation to understand the important business he had to lay before them." He said that he had shut up the liquor casks, but that he found that his proclamation prohibiting the sale of liquor had been disobeyed. He was glad to find however, that they were sober, and expressed a wish that they would not drink any more while the deliberations were in progress. On the twenty-fifth he explained fully all the provisions of the Treaty of Fort Wayne, the benefit the Weas would derive from an increase in their annuity, and the removal from the vicinity of the settlements to the neighborhood of their brothers, the Miamis, who lived farther up the river. He also told them that they would be granted the same amount of goods in hand received by the larger tribes, on account of the inconvenience they would suffer by moving from their present habitations. The Governor's conduct in refusing to negotiate while any evidences of liquor were manifest was in strict keeping with his attitude at Fort Wayne, and his generous treatment of a smaller and weaker tribe certainly redounds to his credit. The Treaty of Fort Wayne was duly ratified and approved on the twenty-sixth day of October, 1809, and the convention was signed by Lapoussier and all the Wea chieftains without a single dissent.

Only one tribe now remained who had any manner of claim to any of the lands in the Wabash valley. This tribe was the Kickapoos, who lived at the mouth of the Vermilion river and in that part of Indiana now comprising practically all of Vermilion county and parts of Warren and Parke. Accordingly a treaty was concluded with them at Vincennes on the ninth of December, 1809, whereby they fully ratified all the proceedings at Fort Wayne, and further ceded to the United States "all that tract of land which lies above the tract above ceded (the north line of which was Raccoon creek), the Wabash, the Vermilion river, and a line to be drawn from the north corner of said ceded tract, so as to strike the Vermilion river at a distance of twenty miles in a direct line from its mouth." Among the interesting names attached as witnesses to the articles is that of Hyacinthe Laselle.



CHAPTER XVIII

THE SHAWNEE BROTHERS

—The Prophet as an Indian Priest and Tecumseh as a political organizer—The episode of the eclipse of 1806—Tecumseh's personal appearance described.

The confederacy of Tecumseh was established upon a priesthood. Let us regard the priest. He was a character remarkable enough to invite the attention of all the leading men of that day, including Jefferson. He was subtle and crafty enough to delude Harrison into the belief that he might be a friend instead of a foe.

The account related by Simon Kenton, and vouched for by John Johnston and Anthony Shane, is that Tecumseh, Laulewasikaw, the Prophet, and a third brother, Kumskaukau, were triplets; that Tecumseh was the youngest or last born of the three; that "this event so extraordinary among the Indian tribes, with whom a double birth is quite uncommon, struck the mind of the people as supernatural, and marked him and his brothers with the prestige of future greatness—that the Great Spirit would direct them to the achievement of something great." The date of this extraordinary event is given by most authors as 1768, making Tecumseh and the Prophet some five years the seniors of General Harrison. "They were born in a cabin or hut, constructed of round saplings chinked with sticks and clay, near the mouth of Stillwater, on the upper part of its junction with the Great Miami, then a pleasant plateau of land, with a field of corn not subject to overflow."

Of the early life of the Prophet not much is known. "According to one account he was noted in his earlier years for stupidity and intoxication; but one day, while lighting his pipe in his cabin, he fell back apparently lifeless and remained in that condition until his friends had assembled for the funeral, when he revived from his trance, quieted their alarm, and announced that he had been conducted to the spirit world." As an orator, he is said to have been even more powerful than Tecumseh himself, and his great influence in after years among the various tribes would seem to bear that statement out. However, he was boastful, arrogant, at times cruel, and never enjoyed the reputation for honesty and integrity that his more distinguished brother did. In personal appearance he was not prepossessing. He had lost one eye, "which defect he concealed by wearing a dark veil or handkerchief over the disfigured organ." It has been related that he was dominated to some extent by his wife, who was regarded by the squaws at the Prophet's Town as a queen.